Why is Revelation so difficult for SDAs and others to understand?
The reason many people today find Revelation difficult to understand is because they are trying to apply the prophecies and symbols of Revelation in a way that was never intended. The truth is that the book of Revelation was written for the Christians living in the apostle John’s generation. We are wrong to interpret it futuristically, as if its message was primarily intended for a time 2000 years after John wrote it. Of course, the events John foretold were in the future to John and his readers; but as John indicates in his book, the events occurred soon after he wrote them. To interpret the book otherwise is to contradict the book itself. For us, the majority of the Revelation is history: It has already happened. Once we grasp this concept, we find that the book is easy to understand and the symbols make perfect sense in light of actual historical events that occurred in the first century.
